It was recently reported that a total of around 40 incidents of "attempted child abductions" were being followed up by a special Garda unit. The subsequent warnings issued to parents are a necessary part of good policing. It makes sense to caution children about not accepting lifts from strangers and also that parents should always know their children's whereabouts.
While obviously all such reports should be taken seriously, and from first-hand experience I know that for children even minor incidents can be very upsetting, there is a danger that the issuing of such warnings may inadvertently give a quite inaccurate picture of the risks of child sexual abuse in this State.
The most obvious problem is that it reinforces the stereotype of who sexually offends and how they operate. The "stranger-danger" scenario is, in fact, the least common of all abuse situations.
If children are to be warned accurately, they should be told that the person most likely to abuse them is someone they know very well, quite possibly a family member and probably not much older than they are. About 70 per cent of all sex offences are committed by family members; of the rest, the vast majority are committed by people well known to the children.
About one-third of all sexual offenders are teenagers who offend, typically, while babysitting. This picture does not fit the "stranger-danger" scenario presented by Garda warnings and emphasises how easy it is for an inaccurate message to be given, inadvertently.
Some of the cases reported concern reports of men travelling around in cars observing children. In one case the full extent of the abuse consisted of two men staring at a 13-year-old girl at traffic lights. Predatory paedophiles tend not to operate like this.
In 1995 Ray Wyre, in his book, The Murder of Childhood, chronicled the life and modus operandi of a paedophile and child murderer, Robert Black. Mr Wyre points out that men such as Black very rarely work in pairs. They tend to be loners who live in a very isolated and distorted world. Another important piece of information is that they are more likely to drive a van than a car. It is much easier to hide someone in a van. So, if children are to be warned of motor vehicles, vans should top the list, not cars.
There are many myths about sexual offending. One is that sex offenders have a higher recidivism rate than other offenders.
The facts are that sex offenders, in general, have a lower re-offence rate than other offenders and that appropriate treatment greatly reduces recidivism. That may not be the popular belief but it happens to be true, particularly for younger offenders.
In the Dublin treatment project for adolescent offenders with which I am associated, only one of the 44 young men who have completed treatment has re-offended and that was a minor offence which was picked up immediately.
Many politicians have called for the introduction of a sex offender register, claiming that such a measure would make a significant difference in the battle against sexual abuse. Unfortunately, this belief isn't borne out by the facts.
For example, since only about 5 per cent of child sexual abuse cases are prosecuted, the vast majority of offenders will never appear on any register because they will never be convicted. Whilst such measures look good on paper, and have political appeal, there is no evidence that they will make any real difference.
If sexual offending is to be tackled in Ireland, policies need to focus on the types of offenders we have, rather than those we might have.
Kieran McGrath is a social worker who works with victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse